Baudelaire and the body: mysticism, elevation and degradation

Abstract

This paper examines the various ways of treating the body in Baudelaire’s poetry: there is an abject, degraded body; another one sublime; as well as another one artificial; and perhaps an absent body, fully sublimated. We present paradigms, frames of reference to examine the issue. The purpose is to enrich Baudelaire’s reading of and contribute to the examination of his enormous contribution.